EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici on Thursday accused several European countries, including Ireland and the Netherlands, of being tax policy “black holes” and promised to pressure them to change their ways.
“Obviously many countries in the European Union are places where aggressive tax optimization finds its place,” Moscovici told reporters in Brussels. “Some European countries are black holes ... I want to address this.”
Former French minister of finance Moscovici spoke ahead of an EU finance ministers’ meeting in which the bloc was expected to whittle down a month-old blacklist of non-EU tax havens from 17 countries to nine.
When the list was announced in December, non-governmental organization Oxfam said that four European countries — Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands — deserved to be on the list if the EU’s criteria were being faithfully applied.
Moscovici denied this, but added: “If you realize that the tax flows go to this or that country: Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus ... let’s talk about how to solve things.”
The countries often serve as EU headquarters for global multinationals, offering complicated tax schemes that help companies — such as Google, Apple or Facebook — to shift profits and avoid big tax bills.
However, instead of expanding their list, the 28 EU finance ministers that are to meet on Tuesday are expected to absolve eight countries — including Panama and South Korea — that will now go to a so-called “gray list” of jurisdictions that have made unspecified commitments to the EU on reforming their tax laws.
Moscovici warned against breaking citizens’ trust and called on ministers to make public any commitments made, repeating similar pleas made in the European Parliament.
“We cannot accept that member states are secretly negotiating exemptions for tax haven nations that have fallen in favor,” said French Member of European Parliament Eva Joly of the Greens party, who is a major advocate of fair tax policy.
The gray list, which currently includes 47 countries, is to be complemented by the eight struck from the blacklist, including the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Mongolia, Macao, Grenada and Barbados.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group